Wednesday, May 29, 2013

A's Kickham to the curb

Starting pitcher
M.C. O'Connor

Couldn't resist. If Mike Kickham has any kind of future in the bigs, we'll get to try out every variation on his name. Silly, I know, but coming up with titles is often the hardest thing I do. The kid looked like he had a nice fastball and could mix in the breaking pitches for strikes, but the Oakland lineup was patient and wore him out. He looked good in the 1st, striking out Chris Young and making a nifty play to cover first on a grounder from Yoenis Cespedes. The Giants had a shift on--Brandon Belt was almost playing second base, and if Kickham doesn't cover the bag it would have been a hit. Those 3-1 plays are easy to screw up but the Giants seem to do them consistently well. One thing the Giants have not done in the last two games is hit the ball with much authority. They could not solve Jarrod Parker despite getting 25 pitches out of him (and scoring a run) to open the game. He made brisk work of the lineup the rest of the night. Gregor Blanco is 0-for-leading off, and neither Buster Posey or Pablo Sandoval could manage a hit. The A's are hot--five wins in a row--after starting the month 4-10. The Giants are 0-for-AL, losing all their inter-league contests so far. Their 9-15 road record is a little ugly, especially considering they were 46-35 last year and scored 410 runs.

Tim Lincecum gets the ball tonight. Let's hope playing at home improves things.

The A's are playing some excellent ball right now, especially against lefties. However, it feels like the Giants are entering one of those offense-takes-a-holiday periods. Kickham was missing strikes, indicating that he needs more seasoning. He did not seem to be getting cheated by the umpire. Here is something to help you realize just how marvelous (although, obviously, thin) our pitching staff is: the fresh-faced Mike Kickham is actually older than Madison Bumgarner.

Given the occasion of a struggling young lad's first ML game, we find your Blog Post Title to be quite offensive, unnecessarily harsh, &, to put it bluntly, a real low blow. Furthermore, we had come to view your blog as relatively observant of high standards of decency. Please note that will now be forced to keep a closer eye on what transpires here.

Please re-evaluate your choice of words - the title used may be more appropriate 5 to 7 games into a young Pitcher's career. However, we believe that young Mr. Kickham is destined for much success - perhaps, at some point in the near future, you can paraphrase Eric Cartman by titling a post after a good effort by the youngster: